Full Analysis of Classic Rock Magazine

For my full analysis of a magazine I chose to analyse Classic Rock magazine, to make sure I have a variety of planning and data from different style magazine to make it easier to make decisions about my own magazine.

Cover Page

Classic Rock comes in at £4.25 for a monthly issue. This immediately points out a brief target audience Classic Rock are aiming for. To me this is probably ABC1, upper middle class, middle class and lower middle class. I believe this magazine is aimed at older males, around 30+ because of the contents of "classic rock". There is a main colour scheme of black and white, but the feature article contains some different colours. I think this is clever as it draws the reader in to the particular article because it's eye catching as it differs from the rest of the page and therefore becomes more striking. Bold captions such as "I walked where Jesus walked.." are also used to capture the readers attention. This here displays Classic Rocks knowledge of its target audience, clearly it does not believe its readers are religious. Names of artists are freely used also, this could imply again Classic Rocks knowledge of its readers as it is making assumptions about its readers music knowledge. The male model is featured in quite an almost superior stance, which could imply the greatness of this artist and how important he is.

Contents Page

The contents page is featured on two back-to-back pages. The first features 4 images, 3 down the side of inside articles with page numbers, titles and a small quote or explanatory text, all of these images are male, and to me, are displayed in quite a masculine way, highlighting the male target audience of this magazine. The 4th image continues the cover image and too contains a page number, title and explanatory text. It seems to be that all the features are listed on this first contents page as there is also a few pieces of text similar to the text that comes with the images, but obviously, without the images. I think using the feature articles first draws the readers in well. The colour scheme is kept the same within the contents page as the cover apart from the red which is cleverly used on feature articles again. On the second contents page it is mostly regulars, although 3 large images similar to the previous page are included.

Feature Article

The feature article I have chosen to look at in Classic Rock is on dutch band "Within Temptation" and is titled "Closer to the heart". It appears here that the black and white theme with patches of red is kept within the magazine too. I think this also hints at the male target audience. The article features a page of columned text. Even though it is an interview it is not worded just as questions and answers. I think this may hint at the intelligence of Classic Rocks readers as they obviously expect more than it to just be simply laid out for them, clearly they prefer to be a good read as well. Only one pull out quote is used. I feel this feature article is quite short compared to others, being only two pages long. But still contains all the elements you would expect from this kind of article.

Rest of the Magazine

The rest of the magazine is heavily filled with advertisements. I would say all of these advertisements are musically related. Most are for Cd's, music shops, music merchandise and festivals/concerts. Unsurprisingly, most are male aimed. The very first advertisement features a women in her underwear, which definitely highlights the male aspect of the magazine. The rest of the text in the magazine is mostly reviews and around 5 feature articles.